Parrots rely heavily on vocal signals to maintain their social and mobile lifestyles. We studied vocal ontogeny in nests of wild green-rumped parrotlets (Forpus passerinus) in Venezuela. We identified three successive phases of vocal signaling that corresponded closely to three independently derived phases of physiological development. For each ontogenetic phase, we characterized the relative i...

This study tested if a therapeutic weight loss diet or presentation of diet to owners would influence owners’ assessment of their dog’s satiety. Twenty-three overweight, but otherwise healthy, dogs were fed their usual diet and then a study diet with both a positive and neutral description in a randomized crossover design. Diets were fed in amounts to meet dogs’ resting energy requirements to m...

Developing animals may face a cost-benefit tradeoff during growth mediated through hormones such as glucocorticoids, as the hormone is essential for development but can have detrimental consequences. To investigate potential tradeoffs caused by brief, moderate elevations of corticosterone in avian young, we artificially elevated the hormone levels in two ways: feeding corticosterone-containing ...

The well-being of the Children is primary objective development goal India. population children Begging in Major Traffic signals Chennai City Tamil Nadu has been on increase. Socio-Economic and Health vulnerability begging highlighted this study. At age schooling involved such activities for their survival. Female are most Vulnerable bearing economic burden family. They speak Telugu Hindi find ...

The effect of the passage of time on parent-offspring behaviour of urban Herring Gulls (Larus Argentatus) was studied and analysed using a three-term contingency model. A behavioural sequence was initiated by the arrival of a parental adult gull, which would lead to feeding in the chick. However, with the passage of time, and approach of the separation period, this pattern changed. Chicks' begg...

We consider game-theoretic rationales for minimal cooperativity, in particular responses to questions or requests for help with false answers. Lying enables preservation of property and face for both speaker and hearer and constitutes a Pareto-optimal outcome. Rationales for this behavior include expectations of reciprocity, other-regarding, and maintenance of face.

Saunders has recently claimed that “identical quantum particles” with an anti-symmetric state (fermions) are weakly discernible objects, just like irreflexively related ordinary objects in situations with perfect symmetry (Black’s spheres, for example). Weakly discernible objects have all their qualitative properties in common but nevertheless differ from each other by virtue of (a generalized ...

How do parents recognize their offspring when the cost of making a recognition error is high? Avian brood parasite-host systems have been used to address this question because of the high cost of parasitism to host fitness. We discovered that superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) females call to their eggs, and upon hatching, nestlings produce begging calls with key elements from their mother's "...